Page 87 of The Evernight Court

Except before the second was over, Tristian put his hand over my mouth and stopped my scream abruptly.

He laughed harder. “Nobody is going to hear you, Fall. Like I said, Romin isn’t here. He’s out there in town with the people. Emil is with him, too. We’re all alone, you and I. Nobody to interrupt—just us.”

Oh, God. I thrashed so hard my entire body was in pain, but I didn’t care. If he would just let go of me, I didn’t give a shit about where it hurt.

But Tristian’s grip didn’t loosen even a little bit, and my screams came out muffled, and his arm around my waist pulled me to his chest harder.

“Mmm…your scent is different. Is that a new perfume or just magic? Your blood smells so delicious.” His tongue was flat against the side of my neck and he licked me all the way to my earlobe. “Oh, we’re going to have a good time, you and I, Fall. We’re going to have such a good time…”

And he began to drag me back.

Movement caught my eye. Someone was right around the corner somewhere to my right, and I was saved. My God, I was fucking saved because Tristian was a damn liar. We weren’t alone in the castle—other people were here, too!

Other brides—like Rachel and Cynthia and Vera, walking together arm in arm before they saw us and stopped. Before they saw me, saw Tristian dragging me back, heard my muffled screams under his hand.

Their eyes were wide and their mouths open, and I thought for sure they were going to say something. I thought for sure they were going to run, to getTristian off me—ortry—and get help. Get Romin to come back if he really was out there, but…

“Carry on, ladies,” Tristian said.

The three brides turned around and disappeared around the corner again, back to where they’d been coming from.

My legs let go of me as if my strings had been cut off, but Tristian held me up easily. He whispered under his breath and licked my neck and kissed my skin, and for a moment there, up until he took us down the corridor that would no doubt lead to the fourth tower—his—I couldn’t move a single muscle. I couldn’t bring myself to even think anything else other thanthey saw.

Those women saw me being dragged by Tristian, saw me trying to break free, heard my screams behind his hand, and they did nothing. They just turned around and walked away.

My God, Grey had been right. They were all monsters.

And I wasnotgoing to let any of them force anything onto me again.

Grey.That’s all that mattered now, wasn’t it? Grey was alive, standing on his own two feet, and I now knewwhere.He was in that mirror, and Storm was just a day away, and I had to get to him right now.Not tomorrow, not any other day—right now, before it was too late for Grey. Before he died for real.

Tristian wasnotgoing to fucking stop me.

I felt the heat gathering inside me and I stopped struggling, stop trying to scream. What was the point of it, anyway? If someone else heard or saw me, it would be either the brides or the guards or the rest of the staff, and none of them would lift a finger to help me. They’d just walk away like they hadn’t seen anything, too.

No, I would not waste any more energy screaming. I’d just focus all of it to this incredible heat that was growing in my stomach because I knew exactly what it was.

Magic. Power. My only weapon. My escape.

I had no idea how to use it other than to do simple basic tasks I’d read about in Valentine’s book, but that book also said that magic existed to serve me. Anything I needed, anything I desired, could be mine through it, with the right amount of power and the right amount of focus.

And knowing that Grey was alive gave me more hope and more motivation than I’d had in my whole life, so my focus didn’t waver for a second.

“That’s it—stop fighting me, sweetheart. I’m going to show you a grand time, I promise. We’re almost there,” said Tristian as he continued to drag me with such ease, and then doors opened somewhere behind him.

Doors to his tower.

No.

Fuck this, I wasn’t going in there. Whatever I had to do to stop him, whatever it was, I’d do it. And so, I did the only thing Icoulddo—I focused on him letting go of me, on himnotbeing able to grab me again, and I unleashed all that heat that was in my stomach toward it. All of it—everything I had, every ounce of energy I poured into that need, into that image.

Stop, stop—STOP!

Everything did.

I saw it happen in slow motion, in detail, and I still couldn’t believe my own eyes after. The arm around my waist froze, and the hand over my mouth moved away. Magic shot out of me in waves, like it was radiating from my skin, and I felt all of it as if I could see it in colors.

A groan came from Tristian, and the next second, he let go of me. He actually let go.

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